The headline was clear and scary: "Cyberattack Hits Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts." The attack disabled online docket sheets and the electronic case document filing portal. Court officials claimed that there was no evidence that the hackers had stolen data.

When you read a little further, you learned a lot of other information, even if the courts did not supply all the details. First, the attack was a denial of service (DOS) attack. That's not the type of hack we are used to hearing a lot about. More often, we hear about ransomware and malware. But there are many other types of attacks. And, of course, it was disruptive. That presumably was the hacker's goal.

So, what is a DOS attack? According to CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Service Agency (https://cisa.gov), a denial of service cyberattack occurs when an attacker overloads a target with traffic. CISA is the agency charged with protecting the nation's cyber infrastructure. It is also one of the best resources available for everything you want to know, and more, about cybersecurity.